For a fee. A fee that reduces his take home pay, and adds uncertainty into the mix with Real that may encourage to start looking for contingencies for the RB spot they have been leaving open for Trent for a couple of years.
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That’s the thing, all 3 contracts (and others) are interdependent whether you like it or not. They will all be benchmarking each other’s contracts, and precisely for the reasons you state, Alexander-Arnold’s advisers would want him to be the last to sign, so he can demand whatever the other two are getting (or more), as the one with more to offer the club.
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Yeah I get what you are saying… TAA is also talking about creating/leaving a legacy when his footballing days come to an end… Going on a free, when he could have contributed to preventing that scenario, is likely to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of LFC supporters, not all, but enough that would tarnish him in the years ahead.
How is any of that Trent’s fault? Trent has performed very well the last 5+ seasons, one of the top performers at the club, I’m certain they had guys who could be working on contract stuff with him the past two years. Same with VVD and Salah. The idea that Trent is doing Liverpool dirty is nonsense, he’s done everything asked of him and the club have let his contract run down. That is always a gamble with any player, and it looks like there’s a chance this one will bite us.
Trent as a player is irreplaceable, he has a unique skillset at the RB position and will do well anywhere he goes. We can likely make it up in the aggregate though, Bradley looks to be very talented, and I’m sure we can look for other good RBs either at home or abroad.
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So perhaps it should be quite plausible to many fans that it’s possible that the situation is in fact the opposite, that he’s using Real as a bargaining chip for his preferred outcome?
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That’s because you have to set a direction at the club first. You don’t just sign players up to contracts without a long-term plan in place.
Or you do, if you want to to be United.
Nipping in before the old git, no player is irreplaceable.
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What I mean is that no single player can replicate his skillset, of course any player can be “replaced” and play the RB position, but no-one else will play it like Trent. We’ll miss his passing range and creativity for sure, but it can be replaced by tactical shifts involving other players. Hopefully.
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All I know, is that a reputation or legacy cannot be bought with money… He has a brilliant opportunity to embellish his work to date by staying, if not, then minimise the spoliation within his method of departure…
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Yeah but the latter is precisely what @cynicaloldgit usually means when he refers to such a thing. The individual players themselves are always unique, it’s just how we evolve as a team after them.
We technically replaced Fabinho with Endō, but the future of the team is with Gravenberch, not him, precisely because the team itself has changed.
That’s if you assume that his base position is that he wants to leave.
One thing that rather confuses me is that people look at it from the position of fans and see what the ideal situation that they want to see is, rather than look at the situation of the parties involved and understanding it. So you end up with judging situations that are simply completely unrealistic.
It’s just like expecting a club to freeze ticket prices, freeze merchandise prices, lower TV package prices by leaning on other clubs, while still expecting them to spend on the latest fancy toy. All of that is simply unrealistic at best.
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The situation with Trent is very different to the situation with Virgil and Mo. Gordon stepped back from Liverpool FC operations to focus on more the upper working of FSG around the time the contract situations would have ordinarily been picked up. Trent’s feels like an area he could (should) have made an exception for putting his foot back in and filling the void of there being no DoF to lead those discussions. There is no real complexity to it other than wage structure management, and that is something Gordon is reported to have had a direct role in with previous difficult deals (specifically Mo’s last extension).
The latter two are more complex with meaningful football decisions that need to be made. You do not want to commit your next DoF to expensive contracts on players he wish you had not done so. So while it is a gamble to have let it get to this stage as you work to get that new DoF in place, having a non-football person intervene in getting those deals done is also a gamble. And it is the sort of move (a non-footballing person making money/contract decisions on players he deems important for the club) we laugh at the like of Utd and Chelsea doing so think with everything considered it was right for Gordon to reject any involvement in it.
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When did he leave?
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Soon
Is he going for sure? Think it’s only from Marca. I didn’t see anything from Pearce. I won’t be surprised if it’s true going by his interview. He was talking about being the best player but not much on Liverpool. Miss him but then i guess his image will get tarnished like Owen. Salah atleast wants to stay with us but Trent has been non-commital. Clubs fault for letting the contract run. Might have got atleast 100 million minimum.
[quote=“sandsoftime, post:403, topic:4524, full:true”] Going on a free, when he could have contributed to preventing that scenario, is likely to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of LFC supporters, not all, but enough that would tarnish him in the years ahead.
[/quote]
McManaman left under similar circumstances, would it be right to say his reputation has been tarnished over the years as a result of leaving on a free?
No it won’t. Trent is a much bigger club legend.
Did Owen win the League and CL with us?
Even if Trent turns out to be a ‘flop’ at Real I doubt he would return to sign for United or City.
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Yeah, bet he’s gutted about what I wrote earlier. Not going to argue though, everyone has their own take.
If his reputation gets tarnished just because he left… then it says more about the fanbase than it does about Trent.
Trent has been a great part of many of our best seasons so I don’t get this sense of entitlement that people have when they say that he should sign another contract so we can get a fee (and that he owes us).
We could have gotten a fee this summer but didn’t. Why then should he accept a lower signing on fee if we chose to hold on to him knowing his contract would expire???
If Trent goes to RM at the end of the season having played his heart out, he should go with our full blessing.
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What if he went to City, Chelsea, Arsenal or Utd?
Im disappointed we haven’t got a fee if this indeed true. Hopefully he continues to put an effort in before he leaves.
I hope the club gives backing to Slot as we move on. I do think we should be getting both VVD and Salah down for another 1-2 years as we will need to make some moves elsewhere.
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Does he give a shit about an individual? Probably not. When it represents a significant proportion of the fanbase, it’s a whole different proposition.
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